The rising cost of living

[chrisp65]

46 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

That's when people are getting home and putting on the kettle and starting to cook their evening meal.

Its sounds like the infrastructure is lagging behind the demand, as per effing usual.

 

 

Yep, I’d say that’s the sweet spot where offices and factories are still running but 5 million kettles and TV’s are being switched on.

As the evening goes on, less industry and business demand so they can cope with the mid Coronation Street kettles.

It does indeed feel like capacity is running hot. If only we were an island with easier access to wind and tidal power. Or a mountainous country with access to hydro electric capability like Dinorwig built in the 1970’s.

But no, we have none of those natural advantages on our doorstep so we’ll have to spend billions on foreign nuclear installations that take 25 years to build, last 25 years, and are toxic for 2,500 years.

 

[MakemineVanilla]

5 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Yep, I’d say that’s the sweet spot where offices and factories are still running but 5 million kettles and TV’s are being switched on.

As the evening goes on, less industry and business demand so they can cope with the mid Coronation Street kettles.

It does indeed feel like capacity is running hot. If only we were an island with easier access to wind and tidal power. Or a mountainous country with access to hydro electric capability like Dinorwig built in the 1970’s.

But no, we have none of those natural advantages on our doorstep so we’ll have to spend billions on foreign nuclear installations that take 25 years to build, last 25 years, and are toxic for 2,500 years.

 

I suspect that the reason they are offering £4 is because it is at peak load that they have to buy power off the French at a premium.

Surely, if they built hydo-electric power stations in Wales, the government would just sell the electricity cheap to the English, like they did the water.

[chrisp65]

7 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

I suspect that the reason they are offering £4 is because it is at peak load that they have to buy power off the French at a premium.

Surely, if they built hydo-electric power stations in Wales, the government would just sell the electricity cheap to the English, like they did the water.

They don’t have to be in Wales or Scotland, other nations are available. I’m sure England must have some hills, it can’t just be totally featureless.

But if they do need more nuclear I’d recommend putting it where it’s needed, central London. I mean, it’s either safe, or it isn’t, so stick it where the demand is.

 

[blandy]

18 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

A British Gas peaksave thing is being run tomorrow, for what I think is the first time.

Use 1kwh less than you usually would between 5:00pm and 6:30pm and they’ll credit your account with £4.

Octopus doing the same,  for the same period, too (It's not their first one, though).

[blandy]

Oh and I wonder how many people are going to be using a kwh or more over that period normally - you'd have to have a lot of stuff on to be using that much in a relatively short time - so to reduce by at least a kwh for the hour and a half...it's not gonna happen for most people, but the energy company will reap the benefit of all the fractions of that for thousands of people trying to reduce their usage - which I guess is how they can give such big credit to anyone who manages it. They'll be quids in. Clever.

[MakemineVanilla]

23 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

They don’t have to be in Wales or Scotland, other nations are available. I’m sure England must have some hills, it can’t just be totally featureless.

But if they do need more nuclear I’d recommend putting it where it’s needed, central London. I mean, it’s either safe, or it isn’t, so stick it where the demand is.

 

I am not sure how much of a fall or how much water you need to drive hydroelectric plants, but I should imagine it would need to be substantial to make a difference.

At the moment the UK has over 1500 hydroelectric installations.

By comparison Switzerland generates almost 60% of its power needs by hydro and over 30% by nuclear - their CO2 output is 28% of the European average.

Nuclear is obviously the answer but no government I can think of seems capable of making such a decision.

[Genie]

Interesting news today that branded food producers have been taking the piss increasing their profit margins during, and fuelling high inflation.
It would be nice if a full official list of them being named and shamed was released. 

[bickster]

11 minutes ago, Genie said:

Interesting news today that branded food producers have been taking the piss increasing their profit margins during, and fuelling high inflation.
It would be nice if a full official list of them being named and shamed was released. 

That'll be Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, KraftHeinz… you know, the usual suspects.

Yet more fantastic examples of the market always sorting it out AKA the biggest economic lie ever told 

This is what the Tory Party actually want. Never forget that.

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, blandy said:

Oh and I wonder how many people are going to be using a kwh or more over that period normally - you'd have to have a lot of stuff on to be using that much in a relatively short time - so to reduce by at least a kwh for the hour and a half...it's not gonna happen for most people, but the energy company will reap the benefit of all the fractions of that for thousands of people trying to reduce their usage - which I guess is how they can give such big credit to anyone who manages it. They'll be quids in. Clever.

Brit gas aren’t doing just the £4 shit or bust, they’re doing it rounded up to the next pound for whatever you achieve.

[chrisp65]

53 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

 

Nuclear is obviously the answer but no government I can think of seems capable of making such a decision.

 

Nuclear is obviously the answer if we can safely presume terror states have reached the pinnacle of drone development, there can never be another unforeseen one in a million accident and all foreign design software will be guaranteed and we have the resource to fix anything and everything.

Or, as I mentioned up thread, the people that trust them 100% are prepared to have them in their town.

If they are safe, they are safe. If they aren’t, we should be using proven genuine renewables not a spectacularly dangerous fake renewable with a thousand year legacy.

[Genie]

2 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

 

Nuclear is obviously the answer if we can safely presume terror states have reached the pinnacle of drone development, there can never be another unforeseen one in a million accident and all foreign design software will be guaranteed and we have the resource to fix anything and everything.

Or, as I mentioned up thread, the people that trust them 100% are prepared to have them in their town.

If they are safe, they are safe. If they aren’t, we should be using proven genuine renewables not a spectacularly dangerous fake renewable with a thousand year legacy.

I know you’re being flippant but there’s risks with anything. A hydro-electric plant could accidentally drown a lot of people. Cars can burst into flames and sometimes do. Just because a nuclear plant is deemed safe it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be located away from large populations, just in case.

I do (genuinely) wonder why nuclear is favoured over things like tidal, wind etc?

Not just here, everywhere. If it was such a no brainer then why are we going down the nuclear route?

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

I know you’re being flippant but there’s risks with anything. A hydro-electric plant could accidentally drown a lot of people. Cars can burst into flames and sometimes do. Just because a nuclear plant is deemed safe it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be located away from large populations, just in case.

I do (genuinely) wonder why nuclear is favoured over things like tidal, wind etc?

Not just here, everywhere. If it was such a no brainer then why are we going down the nuclear route?

Yep, they’re all dangerous, there have been spoil slips above towns this year in the valleys, I think there’s been a recent case of a reservoir that had to be drained.

But nuclear is just on a different scale. It took 26 years before some hill farmers in Wales could sell lamb again after Chernobyl. 

[MakemineVanilla]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

Yep, they’re all dangerous, there have been spoil slips above towns this year in the valleys, I think there’s been a recent case of a reservoir that had to be drained.

But nuclear is just on a different scale. It took 26 years before some hill farmers in Wales could sell lamb again after Chernobyl. 

I read Desmond Bagley's Landslide some years ago, which featured the word "thixotropic" - very nasty!

I suppose we have to decide whether not having our own nuclear power stations, ensures we are safe from France's 56.

 

[chrisp65]

7 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

I read Desmond Bagley's Landslide some years ago, which featured the word "thixotropic" - very nasty!

I suppose we have to decide whether not having our own nuclear power stations, ensures we are safe from France's 56.

 

We weren’t safe from Chernobyl’s one, imagine if it had been just outside Birmingham.

But let’s not concern ourselves, if we could nearly build a train line to Manchester we should be perfectly good at nuclear power stations.

[Genie]

4 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

We weren’t safe from Chernobyl’s one, imagine if it had been just outside Birmingham.

But let’s not concern ourselves, if we could nearly build a train line to Manchester we should be perfectly good at nuclear power stations.

What was unique about Wales which meant they had restrictions in place for 56 years, but the other nations did not?

edit: apologies, 26 years

Edited November 29, 2023 by Genie

[MakemineVanilla]

51 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

We weren’t safe from Chernobyl’s one, imagine if it had been just outside Birmingham.

But let’s not concern ourselves, if we could nearly build a train line to Manchester we should be perfectly good at nuclear power stations.

They would be better built on the east coast because the wersterlies would blow the pollution on to Scandinavia, like we did with our sulfur dioxide.

But it won't happen because we have a tradition of dithering and circumlocution.

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

What was unique about Wales which meant they had restrictions in place for 56 years, but the other nations did not?

(26 years) I don’t think it was unique. I think the three counties affected in the UK were Gwynedd, Clwyd and Cumbria and it was to a large extent down to the luck of the weather with rain over those counties when the radiation was passing over.

From the briefest of googles, areas impacted by radiation in Greece, Germany, Scotland, and Wales also recorded spikes in child leukaemia rates in the 18 months after Chernobyl.

I have to be honest, I can’t get my head around how blasé people are about nuclear.

[sidcow]

6 hours ago, Genie said:

I do (genuinely) wonder why nuclear is favoured over things like tidal, wind etc?

 

 

 

[sidcow]

2 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

I have to be honest, I can’t get my head around how blasé people are about nuclear.

60 years of being told it's a safe wonderfuel and only those foreign far away ones are dangerous despite a number of near disasters in the UK. 

What I find most petrifying is the absolute lack of any plan to deal with the waste. There is no proper storage facility.  Even nuclear subs are just moored up in Plymouth. Not a single nuclear sub ever made by the UK has been properly decommissioned. 

But yeah let's just make another few hundred thousand nuclear rods and stick them in a warehouse somewhere. 

Why make the companies making enormous profits selling us the nuclear electricity at an eye watering mark up on market prices spend a penny on developing a proper nuclear storage site. 

[chrisvilla4]

On 29/11/2023 at 06:48, sidcow said:

I keep my smart metre in my underpants. 

Mines more a stupid inch.